Interview: Brian Nisbet On The Dublin WorldCon 2019 Bid
You may or may not be aware of it but there are legendary people among us. You may pass them on the street or in the supermarket, unknowingly. Look to your left, the person with the last Baby Groot cackling manically on their way out of the comic store could in fact be one of these amazing individuals.
What makes them amazing you might ask? Well, while we’re all looking forward to the cons this year, they’re looking a little farther, already having worked hard and made a bid to bring WorldCon to Dublin; a bid that’s looking ever more likely to fulfilling a lot of lifelong geeky dreams.
Smell the excitement, people.
Recently I managed to tear Brian Nisbet, the Irish Officer for our WorldCon bid, away from his regular duties to tell us a little more. You might already know Brian as he’s been involved in the convention scene for an amazing twenty-five years and is one of the fine folks to bring Shamrokon to over a thousand smiling faces along with Gaelcon and the international Discworld Convention to name but a few. More recently though, Brian and a likeminded team of extraordinary people have been exhausting themselves to bring this historical convention to Ireland.
Brian Nisbet – Irish Officer in Charge of Community Building and Promotions
So, the first WorldCon was held in 1939 and if we’re successful this will be the 77th WorldCon to date, knowing you’ve come so far with this, firstly, how’re you folks feeling? Even thinking about the possibility of WorldCon coming to Ireland and I get a tremor of excitement. Can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be involved with something like that; something so massively awesome.
Brian: I think ‘excited’ is definitely the best overall word to use. It’s far from the only word, but it’s a start. We’re aware of just how much work is before us with both the bid and, assuming we win that, the con itself. We’re going to be working really hard over the next two and a half years, mostly to find out if we get to work even harder over the two after that! But yes, we’re excited that we have a great team and an amazing venue. We’re overwhelmed by the positive reactions we’ve got both from world fandom and especially from Ireland and, to be honest, we’re nervous. This is a huge undertaking and while we’re in a very good place, my personal philosophy is that if you aren’t nervous when setting off to do this, you’ve either forgotten something huge or you don’t really know what’s involved.
Speaking purely personally, I’ve been wondering for years if we’d ever get the right mix of people, at the right time, to start bidding for the con, so I’m over the moon that the bid train is now out of the station and starting to head down the tracks.
From what I hear people were pretty impressed with the monumental effort your team has put in so early on. How long have you been planning for this bid and how many people does it take to pull something like this off?
Sadly, I can’t claim to be the first one to have started working on this. James Bacon, our Bid Chair, has been planning this for a very long time. He had some initial conversations around three years ago and he brought the rest of us in on it around two years ago. Yup, that’s over four years before the vote will even be held! We first announced the plan to the world in summer 2013 and quiet planning continued until summer 2014 with the London WorldCon and the Dublin Eurocon when we officially launched. Honestly I still can’t believe we kept it a secret until the San Antonio WorldCon in 2013 (there were some close shaves), but the plan worked! How many people is an interesting one. Right now the committee is eight people and you can read about us here http://dublin2019.com/bid/team/ (our eight member is very new, but his bio should be up soon). Four people from Ireland, three from the UK and one from the USA, which is a mix we’re very happy with. There’s then a bid team of just under forty people and a wider group of volunteers who are helping out when they can. But the organisation will continue to grow. The average Worldcon number is around three hundred people, consisting of committee and staff, all of whom volunteer their time and skills and passion to make the event as good as it can be.
Obviously holding WorldCon in Ireland is going to present some new challenges but also open up some new possibilities. What’s the biggest hurdle you’re looking to jump and what could successfully hosting this event mean for the future of Irish conventions?
One of our biggest challenges is securing enough hotel rooms close to the Convention Centre, Dublin (CCD) to house the thousands of fans who we hope will descend on the city. While the venue is amazing, it doesn’t have a hotel attached, so we need to do a lot of work to make sure there’ll be somewhere for everyone. We’re extremely confident that we can do this and the wheels are already well in motion, but as hurdles go, it’s not small. As to what this could mean, well, it’s really our hope that holding WorldCon in Dublin will expose all of the various parts of Irish fandom to each other in a way that’s not possible at a lot of other events. I think a lot of people will get to meet, to work together, to exchange ideas and they’ll be able to take this experience back to their own events, making fandom on the island stronger. I think it will also continue to show Irish fans that they can run events that are the envy of the world, as they do right now, and that the size of the island shouldn’t put us from dreaming big!
What could an Irish hosted WorldCon do to make itself stand out from the crowd? Traditionally, there have been some massive cities hosting. So it has some big shoes to fill.
The easy answer and the glib one, is to say ‘be Irish,’ but I don’t think that’s fair. However, that’s not entirely untrue. The con will be hosted in a city famed for its writers, its songs and stories, on an island with a worldwide reputation for being welcoming. You don’t need to talk about Middle Earth or Pern or Westeros; there’s an island of myths and legends right out side the door of the CCD. You can walk across Anna Livia on the bridge named for Samuel Beckett and stroll up to Merrion Square where Oscar reclines. You can wander back through Trinity College to see one of the greatest libraries in the world, then down past Norman Cathedrals and the site of ancient encampments to the island of an Archbishop who predicted the end of the world. And that’s only one part of one half of the city!
Ireland has inspired millions, residents and visitors, for millennia and it continues to do so. The best and the brightest now flock to the city to forge the future of technology, creating a world that is beyond (bar the space travel) what most of the attendees at the first WorldCon would have believed even in Science Fiction. We believe that a WorldCon in Dublin will be informed by the city, by the island, by the people and it will be a truly special event for all who attend.
Tying in with that, could you share or even tease us with some of your thoughts for 2019? I’d imagine we’d be seeing something pretty amazing. I know, I know, if you told me you’d probably have to kill me but I just have to ask.
I wish I could! Tradition and necessity means that we can’t reveal any of our plans and we really are in the very early stages. However I can tell you that there’ll be world famous authors and others just as good that you just haven’t heard of yet. There’ll be magic and games and stories. You’ll meet passionate fans who’ve read everything and ones with a laser focus on just one thing, mingling and sharing. We’ll all marvel at glorious costumes and beautiful art. Did I mention the stories? Books, comics, films and TV, so many stories! There’ll be songs and laughter and quite possibly love ever after! WorldCon is a party celebrating all the things we love and we intend to make sure that party has a very Irish feel, to welcome our guests one hundred thousand times and to send them home with a “You’ll never believe what happened!”
Lastly, is there any way that we can help your team in seeing this through? If anyone out there wants to get involved or know more, where can we find you guys?
One great thing is interviewing us and letting us tell you about the event. Really right now it’s all about spreading the word and directing people towards dublin2019.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We need to make sure that Irish fandom (and beyond) is talking about WorldCon and that we’re all working to make it happen.
The other huge thing is to sign up as a Supporter. This has a twofold effect; it shows the world that Irish fandom is behind the idea and it gives us funds to actually run the bid. The easiest way to do this is via the website here. Finally you can definitely volunteer to help out! As I mentioned, this is a huge undertaking and no offer of help is too small (or too big!). You can email us on volunteer@dublin2019.com or fill out the form here
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk to The Arcade, it’s been a pleasure!
